Syllabus academic year 2009/2010
(Created 2009-08-11.)
THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD - FIELD PROBLEMSVSMN05

Higher education credits: 7,5. Grading scale: TH. Level: A (Second level). Language of instruction: The course might be given in English. VSMN05 overlap following cours/es: VSM040 och VSM040. Optional for: MWLU2, V4at, V4vr, W4vr. Course coordinator: Kent Persson, kent.persson@byggmek.lth.se, Byggnadsmekanik. Recommended prerequisits: FMA062 Applied Mathematics. The course might be cancelled if the numer of applicants is less than 15. Assessment: A mid-term test and two design assignments. Home page: http://www.byggmek.lth.se.

Aim
The aim of the course is to give detailed theoretical and practical knowledge on the finite element method to be able to model and analyse general field problems described from a physical context. Common problems within the field of engineering will be studeied, such as, heat flow, flow in pipes, ground water flow and diffusion for both stationary and transient conditions.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

Contents
The course consists of lectures, exercise sessions and two compulsory design assignments. In the first part of the course a detailed derivation of all the steps in the finite element formulation are given for a one-dimensional heat flow problem: direct approach, strong and weak formulations, approximating functions and weighted residual methods. More advanced problems are gradually added to this basic knowledge, such as, 2- and 3-dimensional field problems. Field problems that are studied: heat flow, flow in pipes, groundwater flow and diffusion. At the end of the course the theory is extended to the study of transient field-problems. The design assignments illustrate the procedure of transferring a design problem into a model suitable for finite element analysis.

Literature
Ottosen, N. & Petersson, H.: Introduction to the Finite Element Method. Prentice Hall, 1992.
Olsson, K.-G and Heyden S.: Introduction to the finite element method, problems. Structural Mechanics, Lund 2001.
CALFEM ver 3.4 - A finite element toolbox, KFS i Lund AB, 2004.